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Monday, May 24, 2010

This weekend was off to Northfield, MA for the Northfield Mountain race (results), put on by my teammate Dave Dunham. This was race #1 in the USATF-New England Mountain Series and also served as race #7 in the 2010 WMAC Grand Tree series, and the USATF-New England Trail Running Championship for 2010. This race typically attracts quite a few top mountain and trail runners from the New England area and beyond. With this year's race conflicting with the USATF-NE road GP 12k in Bedford, NH (or rather with Bedford conflicting with Northfield :)), it was perhaps not as deep as it typically is, but that didn't stop 2x Mt. Washington winner / Olympic Trial Marathoner / 2x US Mountain Running National Champ / Treadmill Marathon World Record Holder / 4x US Mountain Team member Eric Blake (BAA) from showing up. I was

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

On Sunday I headed down to Stafford Springs, CT for the Soapstone Mountain 24k Trail Race (results) put on by Deb Livingston and the Shenipsit Striders. This race is the 6th race in the 2010 WMAC Grand Tree Series. It was my second go at it, as I had also done this race last year (one day after the Bedford 12k) and finished 3rd behind a course record run by Brendan Callahan (BAA) and Ben Nephew (CMS/Inov-8) who stuck it to me over the last mile and got me by 10 or so seconds. This year, I didn't race the day before, and am in better shape than I was this time last year. My game plan was to try to stick to Ben for as long as I could and then try to make a move over the last mile, which is out on the access road between the mountain and the start/finish area.

I headed down to the race solo, on a beautiful morning and arrived about an hour before race time, at the Shenipsit State Forest. It was looking like a great turnout and the weather was much much better than last year. I headed over to registration where I got my pick of some t-shirts from the past ($5 bucks for one from 2005 vs $15 for 2010 :) )... I met up with Steve Wolfe (who has a very good account of the race) who was a little reluctant to do any sort of warmup and pulled up a chair beside the car and started to have his breakfast and do some preparation for the task ahead (i.e. tape, anti-blister treatment, etc.).

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Saturday I opted out of Big Lake Half Marathon after a less than stellar week of running. I felt flat most of the week and didn't feel good on Friday. Friday night I talked with Scott Rowe online and he was ready to go for CR attempt at Big Lake. I knew he would most certainly get it (his own record from 2007) as he's in fantastic shape this season. I on the other hand, felt like I would have a tough time grinding through 13.1 miles on that course. It can be a tad on the slow side and the weather wasn't looking all that great. I decided that it would be in my best interest to forego a spot in the top 5 (maybe) at Big Lake (which is in the money) and look for something else relatively local. I found a couple options that had money (something I almost never focus on or plan around)...